Contemplative and Ethical Eating: A Day of Reflection

Can eating become a ritual that we sensitively and intentionally perform, rather than a routine that we merely go through? Each meal opens a space for sensing how profoundly connected we are with the community of creation. Each meal also opens a space for reflecting on and resisting the practices and systems that harm this community.

Join us for a day of mindful discussion and embodied action, as we experiment with contemplative and ethical eating. We will consider the status quo of our contemporary food system, attending particularly to the death-dealing impact of factory farming. We will reflect on what an ethical response to this status quo might look like. We will also consider how to cultivate contemplative eating practices, by attuning more deeply to the radical goodness of creation through our meals.

By reflecting, discussing, moving, singing, and sharing food together, we will imagine and embody rituals of contemplative and ethical eating.

Date/Time: Saturday, August 15th from 10:00am to 4:00pm

Fee: $50 (lunch is included)

About the Presenter:

Jim Robinson, PhD is the author of Beyond Factory Farming: A Contemplative-Prophetic Approach to Food (Orbis, 2026). He serves as Director of the Deignan Institute for Earth and Spirit and as a member of the Religious Studies Department at Iona University, where he received the Catherine McCabe Award for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching. Jim is a GreenFaith Fellow, and he is actively involved in a number of lay Catholic communities committed to ecology and justice, including Agape Community in Hardwick, MA, Benincasa Community in Guilford, CT, and Maryhouse Catholic Worker in NYC.

Jim's upcoming book, Beyond Factory Farming: A Contemplative-Prophetic Approach to Food, can be pre-ordered at this link.